K.M. Alexander's Blog, page 73
February 2, 2015
Slight Delay With Overlooked Details
The internet is a fickle and restless monster, sometimes everything seems to be going swimmingly and in the next moment you’re having dropped connections and nothing is working. As a result we’ve seen a little delay in the documentary short, Overlooked Details, that I mentioned last week. It’s being fix and it should be available soon. Sorry about the delay! I know a few people have been asking. I’ll post when it’s live. (It’s worth the wait.)
Filed under: News Tagged: art, creation, creative struggle, Kari-Lise, overlooked details, Self-Doubt
THE STARS WERE RIGHT On Sale AGAIN For Only 99¢
If you’re a BookBub subscriber you have already hear this news. However, if you’re not I am very happy to announce that The Stars Were Right, Book One of The Bell Forging Cycle is on Sale again for only 99¢—yay!
Join Waldo Bell as he fights to clear his name while fleeing a mysterious evil through the multi-leveled megalopolis of Lovat. Grab your copy for any of these platforms:
Kindle • Kobo • Nook • iBooks • GooglePlay • DRM Free ePub
Sale ends February 14, then The Stars Were Right will return to it’s regular price of $2.99—which is still cheaper than that cup of coffee you bought at Starbucks.
Filed under: The Bell Forging Cycle, The Stars Were Right Tagged: 99¢, eBook, Lovat, sale, Urban Fantasy, Waldo Bell, weird fiction
January 30, 2015
Friday Link Pack 01-30-2014
Friday is upon us! It’s time to share a few links I’ve found over the last few days. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! All right, let’s get to it…
Writing:
What I Get Paid For My Novels: Or, Why I’m Not Quitting My Day Job
Novelist Kameron Hurley opens up and shares how much she has made on each of her books. It’s a fantastic post. Awesome to see transparency like this. I think this is good info for every author, indie or traditional, it helps set the record straight.
The Last Taboo: What One Writer Earns
I guess this week is about finances. Erotica writer Cara McKenna shares how much she makes from her writing. It’s cool to see more and more writers share like this. I think many new authors assume writing = huge payout which doesn’t match reality.
9 Famous Authors’ Favorite Workday Snacks
From Balzac, to King, to Lovecraft. Mental Floss compiles the go-to snacks when these famous authors had the munchies. (Spoiler, it’s a lot of coffee.)
How To Tell If You Are In A Soft Science Fiction Novel
The Toast shares some tips on how to know if the book you’re reading is soft sci-fi. [Thanks to Steve for sharing this one with me.]
Art:
Coming Soon: Overlooked Details
I’m really excited to announce the soon-to-be released documentary by filmmaker Scott Wilson focusing on my wife, Kari-Lise Alexander (if you haven’t seen her work, you should check it out.)
Bailey Henderson’s Sculptures
You know those strange monsters on old maps? Well, Toronto based sculpture artist Bailey Henderson creates beautiful and highly detailed sculptures based on those very creatures. [Thanks again goes to Steve for this submission as well.]
The Art Of Marissa Buschow
Artist and biologist Marissa Buschow makes beautiful moku hanga pieces (traditional woodblock printing using water based pigments) based on birds she studies as a biologist. It’s stunning stuff. You can buy her work here.
Random:
If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS
This American Life knocked it out of the park with last weeks show. Especially the piece from Lindy West about confronting an internet troll who harassed her and then later apologized. Fantastic episode.
Interactive Map of Earth’s Vegetation Rendered Through NASA Satellite
Beautiful. NOAA recently released this map, utilizing a year’s worth of data, and rendering all the plant life on earth. Zoom in and check out your neighborhood.
Weather Map Freakout
Amusing video of a weather report after the map freaks out and reports unusually high temperatures.
Lovecraft Story of the Week:
He
“I saw him on a sleepless night when I was walking desperately to save my soul and my vision…”
Gif of the Week:
#GOHAWKS
Filed under: Link Pack Tagged: bailey henderson, cara mckenna, finances, Kameron Hurley, kari-lise alexander, lovecraft, marissa buschow, monsters, old maps, scott wilson, Seahawks, snacks, soft sci-fi
January 29, 2015
Coming Soon: Overlooked Details
Been keeping this under wraps for a while, but the time has come! I’m happy to announce the upcoming release of Overlooked Details, An Artist’s Journey a documentary film by Scott Wilson focusing on my amazing and talented wife, Kari-Lise Alexander. The 15 minute documentary will be available to watch next Monday, February 2nd. I couldn’t be more excited.
Last November Kari-Lise was approached by Scott, a local filmmaker and creator of the Emergence Series. It was initially supposed to be pretty short, but over the course of the filming it eventually grew into a 15 minute focus on Kari-Lise’s journey, the creation of art, and the struggles associated within. I cannot wait to share it with everyone. Scott is an incredible filmmaker and really captured Kari-Lise’s story, her passion, and her philosophy. It’s beautiful, it’s encouraging, and I’ll be posting it when it launches.
Until it launches, enjoy the poster:
Filed under: News Tagged: art, creation, creative struggle, Kari-Lise, overlooked details, Self-Doubt
January 28, 2015
The Route Is Open
Yay! News! After some late nights and some web work I loathe doing I am excited to announce the launch of The Bell Forging Cycle website. The plan is to make this the central location for Wal’s story and the world of the Territories. It’s nice to finally see it up and running. It’ll be fun to watch it expand as I write the next four books in the series. (Aiming for a total of six.)
You can check it out by clicking on the image above or by hitting up: bellforgingcycle.kmalexander.com. I’ll be adding some more cool stuff over the next few months. Thanks everyone for the support, and a big thank you to the folks who helped me with this project. Tell your friends!
Filed under: News, The Bell Forging Cycle Tagged: launch, Old Broken Road, Red Litten World, territories, The Stars Were Right, Waldo Bell, website
January 23, 2015
Friday Link Pack 01-23-2014
Friday! It’s time to share a few links I’ve found over the last few days. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! All right, let’s do this…
Writing:
The Punctuation Guide
Handy little resource on the usage of various punctuation. Especially helpful at 2 AM when your exhaustion raddled brain can’t remember specific rules.
Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules Of Writing
I’ve featured Elmore Leonard’s rules and I mention Heinlein’s rules occasionally. It’s always good to read the advice of others and adapt it to you own process. Gaiman’s are good. I bet you can guess the first one.
National Readathon Day Is Coming. Get Involved!
Tomorrow, January 24th, between 2pm—4pm (in your respective time zone), do what you always do and get lost in a book. Only this time help raise some money for the National Book Foundation and help them raise awareness for reading and fight illiteracy.
Random:
Science Fiction Interfaces
A tumblr blog examining the interfaces used in sci-fi movies and television. A great collection also handy for research purposes.
Living Lovecraft: The Real World Locations Behind The Horror
Great article from Atlas Obscura guiding you through the real world locations from Lovecraft’s stories from Ireland to asylums to Micronesia.
Map Stack
Cool little interface allowing you to make super customizable maps for anywhere in the world. [Thanks to Todd for sharing this.]
A City In The Glacier
A semi-permanent structure is being built into the Langjökull Glacier in Iceland. Too cool. (rimshot) Someone set a story here, please!
Someone Stole Naked Pictures Of Me. This Is What I Did About It
(Heads up, video is NSFW after 2:05) “Four years ago, intimate photographs of journalist Emma Holten were posted on the web. Thousands viewed them and she still receives online harassment. The issues of revenge porn and hacked photos are part of a larger problem with our relationship to consent, she argues. So Holten decided to pose for and release a new set of pictures of her body. Here she explains why.” I cannot imagine dealing with harassment like that for years afterwards. Makes me sick to my stomach. [Thanks to Lola for sharing this one.]
Lovecraft Story of the Week:
Collapsing Cosmoses
This short story co-written with R. H. Barlow features strange alien creatures and, shockingly, a growing threat of impending doom.
Gif of the Week:
Filed under: Link Pack Tagged: iceland, interfaces, langjökull glacier, lovecraft, national readathon day, Neil Gaiman, punctuation
January 22, 2015
Wal’s Tale Has A Title
For a while I have been mulling over a title for my current series. There’s a lot of reasons I waited (most of them boring) but the time has finally come. January has been an amazing month for me and I have seen a enormous influx of new readers. As more of you keep reading my books (thank you) and I move closer to releasing book three, Red Litten World, I realized that it’s time to name Wal’s tale.
After some musing, a quick discussion with my editor, and a few conversations with some friends, I am happy to say I have finally landed on the name. Introducing:
It’s funny how something so simple can take so long to brainstorm. But here we are, I love it and for many reasons. The ideas hinted at works on a lot of levels and it’s not another generic series title like Waldo Bell Book #1. I plan on writing more about those concepts at a later date (let me release a few more books before I reveal all my cards.) Until then I’ll let you speculate away.
Filed under: My Books, The Bell Forging Cycle Tagged: Old Broken Road, Red Litten World, The Stars Were Right, Waldo Bell
January 19, 2015
National Readathon Day is coming. Get involved!
This coming Saturday is National Readathon Day! What is National Readathon Day? Well, Penguin Random House, GoodReads, and Mashable have teamed up to create this event to promote reading and raise money for the National Book Foundation for their ongoing fight to promote reading and literature and end illiteracy in America. In our connected society it can be hard to believe but, according to the Readathon page, the numbers are pretty staggering: 40% of American adults are either at or below basic reading proficiency, nearly half, and 14% are fully illiterate.
The good news is you can help combat illiteracy and promote reading by getting involved! All you have to do is read! Sign up with FirstGiving and set up your sponsorship page then get your friends and family to help by sponsoring you (and leave a link in the comments so we can!) or do what I did and sponsor someone else. Then this Saturday, January 24th between 2pm—4pm (in your respective time zone) hunker down and get lost in a book. You’re going to do it anyway, so why not put in a little effort and raise some money for the cause? Together we can help the National Book Foundation promote reading, end illiteracy, and we can get some reading done.
Filed under: Reading Tagged: goodreads, illiteracy, mashable, national book foundation, national readathon day, penguin random house
January 16, 2015
Friday Link Pack 01-16-2014
Friday! It’s time to share a few links I’ve found over the last few days. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! All right, let’s get to it.
Writing:
10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing
Grand master Scalzi shares some advice to young writers. From writing every day to dealing with rejection. Good stuff.
Sky Gazing
Hugh Howey with some straight talk on indie publishing, publishing, dealing with the market, writing, etc. Read it, easily my favorite article of the week. It also goes along splendidly with my article from last week: Ignore The Market. Tell The Story You Want To Tell.
Hey Video Game Developers, We’re Not Idiots
I am throwing this in writing because I feel like it’s a good critique of storytelling as a whole. Cara Ellison explains why sometimes beating your reader/player over the head isn’t necessary and is often… well, a bit over the top. Made me pull back and evaluate some of my decisions.
The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People
We have looked at famous creative’s routines before, but it’s nice to see them all laid out like this. How does your own schedule compare? (Thanks to Steve for the submission.)
Art:
Women Trying To Sleep Unsuccessfully In Western Art History
For hundreds of years women in art have been trying to take a break and catch some Zs. For whatever reason no one wants to let them. Art is weird.
Rovina Cai’s Illustration
Fell in love with Rovina Cai’s style over the holiday and I am sure you will as well. Make sure you check out her Facebook page as well. Lots of good stuff.
A B S A R O K A
Beautiful and haunting short shot by Duncan Wolfe for the Collective Quarterly. A love letter to Livingston Montana… well all of Montana really.
Random:
Watch Bill Gates Drink Water That Used To Be Human Poop
The headline you never expected to read. (Come on, click it, you know you want to.)
5 Of The World’s Most Dangerous Chemicals
Great little video that goes into details explaining some of the craziest chemicals ever invented by humans.
Robots Are Starting To Break The Law And Nobody Knows What To Do About It
Ecstasy and counterfeit hungarian passports… robots know how to party.
Lovecraft Story of the Week:
The Challenge from Beyond
H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E.Howard, C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, and Frank Belknap Long all take a crack at telling one whole story, writing only one chapter each. Good fun.
Gif of the Week:
Filed under: Link Pack Tagged: art, bill gates, chemicals, lovecraft, owl, robots, routines, writing
January 13, 2015
Deals Of The Day & Another Chance To Win
I’ve been saying that there would be a bunch more contests and giveaways and as promised here’s the latest! For the next three months I’ve partnered with book deal of the day site Sci-Fi Fantasy Freak to give away signed sets of The Stars Were Right and Old Broken Road. All you have to do to be entered to win is sign up. It’s that simple!
If you’re a voracious reader like I am I’d highly encourage you to visit their site and sign up to receive their daily newsletter. (I’m a subscriber myself.) Every day you’ll get notified with the latest book releases and book deals. It’s a handy way to keep your eReader full of new books and not go broke in the process.
Not a Sci-Fi or Fantasy fan? Betty and the team have other lists coming later this summer: Mystery Freak, Romance Freak, and Historical Fiction Freak. So there will be more ways to find the books you love.
Filed under: Contests, old broken road, the stars were right Tagged: deals, fantasy, Giveaway, Sci-fi
